them. that they're entitled to health care, food, housing, you name it. >> mr. romney derides 47% almost half the nation as his victims in hopeless scrounges. his state was 47th in job creation. that's all you need to know about mitt romney. thanks for watching. chris matthews and "hardball" is next. an easy choice. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in philadelphia. let me start tonight with this. tomorrow america, this country of ours will be divided. half the country will vote for president obama and keep faith with the current direction. half will vote with varying degrees of anger to depart from it. to who knows in one of the various directions governor romney has offered. with him you need a weather map

to know what road he's going to take on any given day. the question looms now of how this country will get together the day of tomorrow. i always think that's important, but it's more important now because of our form of government, the division in the country. barring a landslide, it's going to take both sides to move ahead to meet debt reduction, immigration, education, and competition in an increasingly competitive world. both sides. got it? whatever happens tomorrow, we need a working national unity when it's over. that's a fact. our two guests are the best. nbc's political director chuck todd and howard fineman. let's look at this. let's start right now and look at the last words. here's romney today in lynchburg. >> paul ryan and my vision is to limit government rather than limiting the dreams of our fellow americans. now, our choice tomorrow is going to lead to one of two very

different outcomes. if the president were to be re-elected, he would still be unable -- [ booing ] >> i think you and i can agree on that here, but there may be people watching who haven't decided yet, so i'll note for them if he were to get re-elected, he would not be able to work with people in congress. >> and later in the day, president obama laid out that very different division as where we should be heading. let's listen. >> tomorrow you have a choice to make. and it's not just a choice between two candidates or two parties. it is a choice between two different visions for america. it's a choice between returning to the top-down policies that crashed our economy or a future that's built on providing opportunity to everybody in growing a strong middle class. >> well, we've got chuck todd joining us and howard fineman.

i have to give you some anecdotal information which has given me good information. i have a brother charlie who always votes for the winner. he called me an hour ago and said it's obama. because that's who he's going to vote for. don't laugh, chuck. when you get an absolute provable leading indicator you will never let it go either. so i've got one. i've looked at all the numbers today. all the numbers seem to point to a mild victory for obama. none seem to point for a victory for romney. what do you know so far? >> i can tell you the body language of the campaign, talking to the two campaigns. the obama folks don't think they're trailing in a single battle ground state and this is the day before the election. that's not to say they think they win every one of the nine battlegrounds if you include north carolina in that larger nine. that's how confident they are. that's how much they believe that they have done enough of what i would call the building the flood walls, if you will, with the early vote and the

absentee. and what their turn b in operation is. and i the tell you what you hear out of republicans and out of the romney pain is simply we're counting on momentum. we know the core republican party is enthusiastic. that's what you say when you don't have math on your side on this. and they don't sound like they feel confident the numbers are on their sides. they're hoping somehow like in a senator's race or a governor's race that tie goes to the challenger. >> howard, do you think it's possible that the hatred level of obama on the right and some in the center-right could be slowing down a bit because of the last couple weeks. things getting slightly less testy in the country. my hunch. yours? >> no, i don't think so. i think among the hard core the intensity is there. chuck said flood wall, he used the analogy of a flood wall. i think the storm whatever republican storm is out there to continue the analogy is -- has a lot of velocity at the center of it. but it's questionable whether

it's a majority. now, when you talk to the romney people, what they keep saying is hey, look. the president is mostly under 50% in the horse race poll. he's at 47%-48% in most of the polls. and by the traditional notions of campaigning, if the incumbent is not at or above 50%, then he's going to lose. that's their faith. i agree with chuck. they don't talk numbers. they don't talk states. the only state they want to talk about is pennsylvania, but i just got off the phone with probably the leading republican strategist in the state. independent republican strategist. he says in fact, romney has covered some ground in the last couple weeks, but he still thinks it's 3% to 4%. maybe 3.5% to 4% pro-obama. and what that race is going to come down to if the focus is on pennsylvania and ohio as you know, it's who lives up on the hill and who lives down in the valley. who looks like the guy who runs the company and who looks like

the guy you work with. and the truth is that neither one of these guys fits totally into the framework of mind of the working class person in ohio or pennsylvania. but i think, i think that obama's still a little closer to their heart than mitt romney who hasn't made the sale to them personally. all he's done is made the case against obama. he hasn't made the case against himself. >> let me ask you about the argument that romney seems to be making. i thought he had a really good argument in the debates. first debate especially. chuck, he said business is jobs. i'm a business guy. i can give you jobs. it was so down the middle, so perfect for the country's need, the sense of need we have, all of us. that seems to be dissipated the past few weeks. it's not the front and center discussion right now. is that bad news for romney? >> well, i think that -- look. i think part of this has to do with he wasn't a i believe to make a closing sale in the last

week with sandy. there was some evidence before sandy hit that he had sort of was peaking and maybe the president was starting making his comeback in some of these cases before sandy hit. but then it sort of froze things with the trajectory of the president with a little bit of momentum and romney stalling. but i go back. it's funny you bring it up. businessmen when they run for office get a halo effect with swing voters. particularly independents. there's this businessman halo. i've heard consultants tell me about it from the republican and democratic side. the trick is how quickly does that halo go away? for a long time the obama campaign had beaten the living daylights out of romney's business background to make it so that he never got it. the denver debate gave it back to him again. right? sort of brought it back and he was doing well with that group of swing voters. now where are these? i was stunned in our wall street journal poll when you look at it

in the up for grabs voters. they look like they lean more obama than romney. and that's a big problem for romney. >> i thought the nbs c -- >> let's stay with chuck. out there that the challenger will get four out of the six or something like that, is that still a probability or not given what you know about favorabilities? >> no. no. i think it's very possible it's one to one. i think it's possible that it's actually splits up 40% of them going to obama, 30% go to romney, and 30% don't vote. i think that's the more likely scenario of this 8% to 10% of the electorate. >> i thought that in the nbc poll actually independents that romney leads among independents. >> among independents. but these are the up for grabs, the people who call themselves undecided or lean only lean obama, lean romney. >> i think for the problem in the end for mitt romney if he doesn't score what would have to

be regarded as an upset here if he doesn't do it, it's because he hasn't made enough of the sale about himself. i think. either his agenda, his personality, his plan. it's not specific enough. it's just not enough. it's not quite enough in this situation to make the case against the incumbent. you have to have done more to have made the case for yourself. and it's pretty plain that he hasn't really quite done it in most places. >> it's funny because he got 3/4 of the first way there on the first debate. look at these numbers. he showed us his cards. he said he was confident they would win most of the swing states. listen to what the v.p. said yesterday to me. >> i think we're going to win this state, ohio. i've been in here 23, 24 days. something like that. i think we're going to win iowa. we're going to win wisconsin. we're going to win nevada. we're going to win new hampshire. i think we have an even chance

of winning virginia and florida. so it could be a big win. and it also could be close. >> check those numbers bhap do you make of those states? is that a good list? >> i think the ceiling is somewhere 300, 303 if you want to be exact the numbers i've done. if you throw in north carolina it could be 318 max. that's possible. they could all be 51, 49 at the end of the day. i do want to say i think a lot of us, we're sort of victims of 2004. before 2004 we were all more convinced of the challenger incumbent rule. that somehow challengers always got the undecided and then a tie goes to the challenger. then you're happened when bush won frankly as many of the undecided as he did. then you'd have to go back to '76 the last time the person with momentum lost at the end. lost the popular vote. that was ford.

ford had the momentum but carter won in the end. even gore, he had the last-second momentum. he did win the popular vote. having the momentum has it in the end. >> what's it going to mean for obama if obama wins it is the ground level organization. i was in an obama campaign headquarters on the outskirts of the washington metropolitan area in virginia and i was impressed by the methodical nature of what they did and also the distributed nature of what they did. in other words, everybody didn't come to headquarters. the materials, the lists, the walking lists and so forth were all in homes around the region. in other words, people in their individual homes and neighborhoods became the effective campaign headquarters for those areas. they have built on what they did in 2008. they do have a superb ground game. it's going to depend on them getting their own people out in all of these states. they have it divided in terms of

types of voters. they have it divided by location. the analogy i use goes to the way the israelis operate in the desert. they don't have a lot of water, but they drop a droplet of water on every seed. the romney campaign theory is the older fashioned wave tv advertising, psychology, tie goes to the challenger situation. but it's such a closely divided country where everybody is microtargeting. maybe that old wave theory just doesn't operate anymore. certainly the obama people think that. you talk to the romney people, they're still clinging to that idea even though there are not that many voters to create any kind of a wave. any kind of a wave at this point. >> that's that last point that matters more than any. so for instance, '76. my longtime mentor doug bailey was on that ford campaign. said gallup showed ford up a point. it cost him. people said wait a minute the psychological factor.

people went in the booth saying wait a minute. i forgot i'm punishing ford for nixon and that's why i'm going to vote carter. the problem now, say there's people with buyers remorse saying i'm not ready to reward the president. half the battleground state vote is in. it's in. it's already happened. colorado, florida, north carolina, iowa, nevada. more than 50% of those states have voted. let's say there's a buyers remorse at the end going wait a minute i don't want to reward this incumbent just yet. that vote's gone. >> i don't know if mass psychology works quite the way it did. the country's pretty divided as we said. communication is more fragmented. people speak discreetly to their own particular group. so the sort of crowd psychology notion of the past may or may not work. we'll find out tomorrow night. that's the faith that the romney people have. they're going on faith more than numbers in most of these places.

>> and pennsylvania is a good place to do it. >> okay. chuck todd, you're the best. thank you howard fineman, you're the best. figure that one out. coming up, these two men with very different plans for the country's future and what voters need to keep in mind tomorrow. president obama's deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter joins us live. and also we have dubbed romney the post-truth candidate. have you heard that? he's the post-truth candidate. these past few weeks we heard him say whatever he thinks will work regardless if it's true. of going on an apology tour he never went on, eliminating the work for welfare which he never did. he never lets the facts get in the way of a nasty attack. also what's going on in florida? we saw people waiting over six hours to vote in miami-dade. a poling place opened then closed then opened again.

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welcome back to "hardball." could this stakes of this

election be any higher? tomorrow is also about what direction prevails on issues of equal pay for women, of health care, of war and peace. and we're facing an epic decision on every front. stephanie cutter is for the obama campaign. we're lucky to have her tonight. thank you for coming on all these times. here's your closing opportunity. let's talk about women. i think you and i -- i'm older than you, but i think we thought a lot of these issues were decided years ago. choice, contraception. they've come back almost like an old friday night horror movie. what's going on in this choice with women especially? >> the president said it's best. we're going back to the social policies of the '50s with mitt romney at the top of the ticket. i don't know why it's been divisive as it has been. it's become almost a litmus test for republicans. but this is exactly what's at stake. you were saying it best in the open.

whether women have access to contraception on their insurance plans. because mitt romney wants to put employees in charge of whether or not women get access to contraception. the right for women to make their own health decisions. mitt romney says he was going to sign into law legislation to overturn roe v. wade. and basic health care, the obama health care act. and then finally how many women across this country depend on planned parenthood for family planning or for cancer screenings. mitt romney said quote, we're going to get rid of that. so that's at stake. so when women go to the polls tomorrow whether it's the equal pay, their own ability to make their own health care decisions, or how we want to move forward with this economy and help this economy recover from the middle out. you know, helping kids go to college because that's an investment not only in families and in opportunity, but in our

economy. whether or not -- how we're going to reduce our deficit. we have to reduce our deficit. do we want to do it on the backs of the middle class or having everybody pay their fair share. that's what's at stake. >> let's talk about single women. single women it seems to be -- let's take a look at all women. we've got a new usa today gallup poll that came out today. men are about ten, they favor romney by about ten. women favor the president by 16. if you just put those two sets of numbers. look at those two sets. you say obama win the election because women are 52% of the electorate. >> at least 52% of the electorate. but we need women to come out and vote. they support the president by double digits but we need them to actually come out to the polls and vote tomorrow. in the usa today poll in a lot of the state polling, he leads women by double digits. but now is the time when it matters to demonstrate support

when you come out to the polls. for those that are early voting, broad coalition of people, young people, women, african-americans, latinos, they're all coming out to cast a vote early for this president. in many states there's still an opportunity to do that. ohio you can still cast a ballot today. florida, they reopened many of those polls because of the long lines to allow people to go in and drop off their absentee ballot in person today. so i hope people will come out and vote. >> stephanie you're the greatest. thanks for coming on so many times on "hardball." up next, the sights and sounds from this final day of campaigning. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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running mates went state hopping today where tomorrow's election is to be decided. >> what a great virginia welcome. >> wisconsin, you have a choice to make. >> i'm happy the economy of virginia is going to continue to grow. >> we're going to barn burner today. we're crisscrossing the country. >> four more years! >> if you're tired of being tired, then i ask you to vote for change. >> and governor romney's a very talented salesman. he's tried as hard as he can to repackage the same old bad ideas and make them out to be new ideas. >> a handful of states are going to figure this out. >> tomorrow. >> i need you wisconsin. >> wisconsin. >> we need every vote in florida. >> we need you, virginia. >> are you going to help us win this thing, nevada? >> help us win this. >> nevada, we're counting on you. >> wisconsin, you know me by now. >> i need your help. >> we know you can do this. >> i've got news for romney and ryan. gentlemen, it's never, ever,

ever been a good bet to bet against the american people. never. >> well, by the time the night is up, they'll have covered eight states between the four of them. then the waiting game begins. by the way, bruce springsteen, the boss, joined the president in wisconsin and ohio today. he's one person who can tease the president on this final day of the presidential campaign. it's about those late night phone calls and the president's performance in the debates. >> every once in awhile i get a call like after the first debate. the phone rings. i can't get no satisfaction. all right. then after the second debate i got a nice version of i'm sexy and i know it. i stood with president obama four years ago and i'm proud to be standing with him here today. because he promised me a ride on air force one. >> anyway, he wasn't kidding. he hitched a ride on air force

one to the next campaign event which was in ohio. update, he said the ride was pretty cool. up next, mitt romney has been called the post-truth candidate. the guy saying whatever he thinks could help him win whether it's true or not. that's ahead. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? the capability of a pathfinder with the comfort of a sedan

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i'm jon forth with your cnbc market wrap. the dow gains 19. the s&p is up three. and the nasdaq adds 17. apple shares rose more than 1% after the apple company said it sold 3 million ipads since friday. it did not break out sales figures for just the ipad mini. and netflix was also a gainer after it took measures to protect itself from a potential

takeover. acquired a 10% stake in the company. that's it from cnbc first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." part of a presidential race is about policy. and part of it's about trust. you may be frustrated sometimes by the face of change. guess what, so am i. but you know what i believe. you know where i stand. you know i tell the truth. >> welcome back to "hardball." president obama on the trail today with the bottom line argument you know i tell the truth. it was back in august that a romney campaign pollster showed the truth wasn't necessarily one when he said quote, we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.

left the impression that chrysler saved by the bailout was moving jobs to china broke new ground in political dishonesty. i asked vice president biden about it when i interviewed him yesterday. let's listen. >> saying that barack obama sent chrysler bankrupt so the italians could buy it and send it to -- it scared the heck out of people. and it's flat false. it's the most cynical play i've seen any -- and as the -- there is an editorial in the denver post saying this goes to character. it's not just a lie. but it goes to character. >> and the vice president talked about the political calculation they made saying their paid adds and journalists reporting the truth. >> i think they believe that all the free -- when you and i were doing this, free press was more valuable than paid media.

i think they think if they pent a couple million bucks or 20 million bucks around the country on these ads around the country, this will swamp free press. >> joining me nia-malika henderson. dee dee, you must be amazed by this change in reality here. all those times you had to deal with the press and argue with them over facts and particular things. then here comes the romney people around him, the handlers saying we don't have to deal with the quibbling of what's true or not. what's true isn't relevant. if we can spend millions of dollars saying jeep is going to china. if we can say this guy is getting rid of the work requirement for welfare, it doesn't matter what you pencil necks in washington have to say. >> and what they found out and what the theory that underlines their case here is there's no penalty to pay for playing fast and loose with the facts. you put a point of view on television, you line up

information that's not true and there's no penalty to pay for that. it's the end result of a 20 year campaign by the right wing in this country to discredit the mainstream media, the liberal press. so now there is no neutral arbiter in the country who can say this isn't true and that everybody will pay attention to and say this isn't true. there are still people out there who believe the false claims the romney campaign has made. that's why they keep making them. >> yeah. nia, we have a mixture of mainstream press. "new york times" is liberal or the opinion pages. the "washington post" is close to center these days. what do they think? they're just going on the idea that sheer bucks and the amount of times you can make impressions on the news or on the airwaves whether it's "entertainment tonight" or a sports show, you don't have to worry about the news.

>> it's like george costanza politics. they've run into a problem. people in ohio know the truth about the auto industry. they know that there have been more jobs there. they know one in eight jobs is related to the auto industry. they know their neighbors have been employed and kept employed by these auto bailouts. and then they went and really flew in the face of what jeep and chrysler is actually doing so they came out and of course knocked down those statements. here at the post, we have a fact checker who gives out pinocchios. over the last couple weeks, the romney campaign definitely edged out the democrats and obama in terms of telling falsehoods. they got about 2.5 pinocchios versus obama's 2.1. i think it was in these last weeks he was edging out obama primarily because he wanted to close the gap in these polls. and we'll see in the end whether or not it pays off. >> let's take a look at this. this morning by the way you mentioned the fact the jeep

producers chrysler have said it's dishonest. they're not moving jobs to china. here you have the republican governor of ohio john kasich conceding that despite the romney ads claimed the contrary, chrysler was adding u.s. jobs not taking them away in ohio. let's listen. >> and is jeep creating more jobs in ohio or are they sending them to china? >> no. chrysler has -- chrysler is the one auto maker that has increased employment. >> well, there you have it, dee dee. when you get the auto makers you get the governor along with the lame stream press, that's a coalition against the romney makers. >> i think they found the line. right? they found the line that they've gone too far. and in fact, this may not only cost them but could cost them ohio if it ends up to be an incredibly close race. but that doesn't mean they're not still out there with a whole bucket full of other half truths and shifting positions. whether it's mitt romney has said things like his health care plan would cover pre-existing

conditions. he says he wants to make birth control accessible to all women while he's endorsed things like the personhood amendment and things that would make birth control less accessible. and the list goes on. his tax policies, you know. it's just one after another he's put out there these falsehoods and dared the country to call him on his inconsistencies. >> he knows whoever raises their hands in victory election night, it's why'd you say that two weeks ago. victory is victory. last night it went pretty far. organized by the faith and freedom coalition evangelical group by ralph reed. paul ryan told thousands on the call that president obama's policies threatened judeo-christian values. put on a path that restricts freedom and liberty and compromises those values. those judeo-christian western civilization values that made us

such a great nation in the first place. i think this paul ryan guy has gotten off the crazy end here. when you talk about obama, they call him the colonial kenyan or whatever nonsense. who is this barbarian? and the fact that ralph reed with his record, who's he to talk about this moral issue? what's going on here? >> that's right. i mean, you saw some of this rhetoric in the primary with rick perry saying that obama was a threat to christian values. you've seen this from newt gingrich going back to when he was up against bill clinton. somehow they're in with god and democrats aren't. i think what obama has done to counter this idea that he is somehow other is he's out there all the time. he's in our living rooms, out there with his family and his wife. seeming like the president and first lady next door. in that way i think most people see this for what it is. they're trying to rally the base

paul ryan on this call with evangelicals. so i think in some ways it does rally evangelicals but it also rallies progressives. they are very much upset by this idea of framing this president as somehow outside the mainstream. and that's why i think progressives, there is this idea that somehow progressive and liberals and democrats aren't fired up. but they are fired up and part of the reason is because of these republican attempts to paint obama as somehow ill legitimate. >> wait until they have to hear what i have to say at the end of the show. got a last word. what is it? >> this is a reactionary kind of culture. it's not just in the romney campaign and the ryan part of the romney campaign. it's throughout the republican party. they're trying to limit the number of people who can vote, keep certain kinds of people away from polls, they're trying to reduce the size of the electorate, trying to circle the wagons. they're running this very reactionary campaign. if they lose and beyond that this is not a winning strategy

for a country becoming more diverse. they are on the wrong side of history here in so many ways. >> well said. thank you. up next, both campaigns are lawyering up in case the battle for the white house isn't cleanly won tomorrow night. i hate this mess that's coming. already there are big problems to tell you about down in guess where. florida. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary. oral-b power brushes oscillate, rotate and even pulsate to gently loosen and break up that sticky plaque with more brush movements than manual brushes and even up to 50% more than leading sonic technology brushes for a superior clean. oral-b power brushes. go to oralb.com for the latest offers. oral-b power brushes. a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid.

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clinton here no pennsylvania today after mitt romney campaigned here yesterday. will try on espn's monday night football. tonight's game is between the saints and the eagles. and the president will be looking to make up ground tomorrow. we'll be right back. in america today we're running out of a vital resource we need to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone's ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready.

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so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. let us vote! let us vote! let us vote! >> welcome back to "hardball." what you just heard is a group of people waiting to vote in miami-dade county in florida just yesterday.

protesting let us vote after election staff people locked the doors during the time early voting was supposed to be in progress. that polling site opened about an hour later again. what came on the heels of florida's busiest voting day ever when people waited in line up to six hours to vote. up until 1:00 in the morning in some cases. here's what christine todd whitman had to say about it earlier today on msnbc. >> i don't know what went on in florida, but i do have to say in this day and age it's simply inexcusable in this country we have anything like this going on. i mean, i've led delegations around the world to watch voting. and this is the kind of thing you expect in a third world country, not in the united states of america. >> that's what you see in a third world country. what a critique. with me is scott aresno and bob shrum. give me the skinny here. can we get a clean, fair, honest

election in florida snorm. >> well, absolutely, chris. we have had some problems, but some are good problems to have. we've had an explosion of voting here. we've had early voting cut from 14 days to eight. just four years ago our republican governor had to extend early voting hours. so yeah we've had the intended consequences that the republicans wanted. we've had long lines. but folks here have stayed in those lines. they sat throw the seven-hour wait and voted. that's crucial. people waited and are voting. we're going to have a big day tomorrow. we think it's going to go well and we're going to win. >> so if people show up to vote tomorrow in florida in any county, they're going to get to vote. despite what rick scott's up to, the governor? >> absolutely. we've got attorneys statewide at all the major precincts. we have everything in place to make sure we think it's going to be a smooth and fair election. we think we'll have close to 5

million people voting tomorrow. there are going to be lines. we've got a long ballot here in florida. but people are going to get to vote. we're encouraging people to get out there. we think it's going to be a great day. >> bob shrum, thanks for joining us. nothing depresses me more than the thought of people being kept from voting. whatever party they're in, they ought to have the right to vote. not some screwed up ballot so they end up voting for pat buchanan than lieberman. forget the chads and all this crap. voting ought to be simple. your thoughts? >> we went through this in 2000. i think it's a cautionary tale. that's why people have gone into court. and i think a lot of folks in florida are really angry about this and in a way it may backfire. they're determined to vote. but chris, you've done something important during this campaign. you've blown the whistle on the racial appeals. and this voter suppression is nothing but a new form of poll

tax which taxes people's hour and hour and hour of their time in order to be able. in the meantime people have to take it in their own hands. that is stand in those lines. the obama campaign has a great get out the vote operation. you also have all these lawyers who are ready to fight this battle in court if it has to be fought. >> let me go about closing times tonight. thanks for joining us tonight, scott. right now you're on live television in florida and across the country. what time can you vote tomorrow morning? and if you get in line by 7:00, is it? you get to vote no matter when it comes your turn, is that right? >> absolutely. polls open at 7:00. they close at 7:00. if you are in line at 7:00, they will keep that polling place open until everyone has voted. so don't feel like you need to walk away. stay in line. as we saw saturday night, if it takes past midnight, we'll go

past midnight until the last vote is counted. >> all right. bob, what do you want to say to the voters? put up the crap and get there, right? >> listen. look back at 2000 when the supreme court ultimately said we don't have enough time to count the votes. they did, actually. so we're just going to make george bush president. look at the consequences that flowed from that. so if you have to wait an hour, be if you have to wait two hours, three hours, it's unfair, we ought to make it illegal, it ought to be a crime to stop people from voting in this country but go out there and do it because your whole future depends on it and we've got to send a powerful message in this election, that this kind of voter suppression has no place in america. >> bob, you said it well. i'm going to say it again at the end of this show. if you think these people are being prejudicial, biased against you, all the reason to vote for yourself. scott, thanks so much for coming on. good luck with the election tomorrow. hope you get a clean count down there. >> thank you. the big if of this election

tomorrow. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. are you in good hands? [ voice of dennis ] silence. we'rwith questions fromtump sombing elections.kies do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken?

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let me finish tonight with tomorrow's election. if -- tonight, it's all about this. if. if president wins, it's because of vital actions he's taken in office. he rescued the american auto industry, one of those decisions that separates the two parties. this is important. mitt romney's opposition to general motors wasn't some isolated decision.

his entire philosophy was against it. a second step obama took was to give legal relief to young people brought into this great country by their parents. when the congress held them up on the dream act, he did what he could with executive action. there are future americans because of him. hopeful of their lives, secure in their prospects because of this president. instead of helping himself-deport as his rival recommended, he welcomed them in our country and cheered them. again, the action mattered and separated him from the other candidate invite tal ways. if president obama wins tomorrow, it's because of other actions that carry tremendous vitality. equal pay for women. it's the law. it's enforceable because of the lilly ledbetter act this president passed into law. open service. again, it was this president who established open service. no more, don't ask, don't tell. that's gone. you don't have to hide a part of your life to put all of it on the line for your country. and as commander in chief, he

led the actions of the chief finally this mission of the country, since 9/11 ppds, so many thousands of innocent americans. and he ended the american war in iraq and is ending it in afghanistan by date certain. oh, yeah, it's been in the headlines. what an ex em pa later job he's led in tad in the tropical stor sandy. he did that. barack obama. as i said the word tonight is if. if this president is re-elected tomorrow, it's because of the bold controversial acts he's taken. he acted where others might have flimpbled or numbered or said, o oh, we don't need government to do those things. what the american people do tomorrow and what they have begun doing since voting began, if obama is re-elected, it's because of the historical alliance he struck when he asked hillary clinton to be his secretary of state, offering her

the most extinguished position in this cabinet. it will go down in history. and her accept advance of this high position along with a requirement of full aton me in subcabinet appointments was the deal maker. a headline written up when nothing was new, the joke. today, tomt, the democratic party is elected with former bill clinton losing his voice. the former president speaking in philadelphia and scranton as the obama campaign's closer. there could be no more dramatic testament than this powerful alliance than what we are seeing. powerful. it could define the democratic party for years ahead. if barack obama wins tomorrow, it's due in powerful part to what bill has been doing for weeks now and what hillary clinton has been doing for four years. if president obama wins tomorrow, it's also because of other americans and what they are doing, their part. progressives, people in the progressive side of the

democratic party have stuck with this president and struck strong, recognizing you can't get it all and certainly not all at once. they have looked and and heard the words spoken on the other side and have been left with a surer sense of what really matters. if the president wins tomorrow, it could be because the progressives stuck and kept the faith. women learn the hard way that it still matters, the supreme court is perilously close going to the other way of reproductive rights. and the women's right is not equal across the political spectrum. the crazy things said by certain republican candidates is not background music, it's coming from the same right wing mind set that loves nothing, including human freedom more than it loves the past, indeed, the decent past. if the president wins, it will be because all of the people who benefited from the guts and foresite of what he had to do, stand up and do their part tomorrow.

hearing those horrible words that have been called out ang grily against the president. they will note because deep in their suffering self that those words, that villainy that has been rained on the president, that he's lazy, that he does not really love his country is not aimed at him alone, not by any means. this is not one lone man, those words, food stamps and welfare and lazy and unamerican and all the rest of it has been hand crafted by history of too many good people to be counted and they will not stop being heard. let those who spoke them win and they will do with more vehemen for a full throatedness the next time and the next. tonight i think of that word if because tomorrow, perhaps late tomorrow it will be different. we will know who showed up and who didn't. we will hear of the angry voter to rid themselves of